Builds hairy_apple's 2FE build

[hairy_apple]

Today was not a good day. Went to pick up some stuff from the machinist, and he had bad news.... head is toast. Cracks everywhere. Every exhaust port and a couple of the intake ones had these cracks. Damn it.. I guess I'm hunting for a head now.

 

[hairy_apple]

oops

 

[4Cruisers]

Today was not a good day. Went to pick up some stuff from the machinist, and he had bad news.... head is toast. Cracks everywhere. Every exhaust port and a couple of the intake ones had these cracks. Damn it.. I guess I'm hunting for a head now.

View attachment 1881865 View attachment 1881866

I've got a good 3FE cylinder head that was checked out by Brian at Empire Engines in Albuquerque. There's a good chance I'll be out in Sacramento in 3 or 4 weeks to pick up a '71 FJ40 tub for my build. PM me for details.

 

[hairy_apple]

Got back to it finally. I got really sick, and got pneumonia and still am feeling a bit down, but at least am able to go back and get working on stuff again. Got the head set on there, but ended up needing two more head bolts. The 3FE head bolts have two longer ones, for the lifting hook, however, I bent the lifting hook when the engine feel, and it's too mangled to deal with. So I am just going to put the short bolts into it and use the 2F lifting hook that goes on the side, and just remove it when I am done putting the engine in.

Started cleaning the rocker stuff up too. Hopefully by the end of this week, I will have the engine done and ready to mount to the transmission and Tcase. Hoping to install it all in a week or so.

 

[4Cruisers]

I can send you a 3FE lifting hook, let me know. Glad the cylinder head worked out for you.

 

[hairy_apple]

I can send you a 3FE lifting hook, let me know. Glad the cylinder head worked out for you.

Thanks, yeah, it got here great, and was in great shape. Thank you again. As far as the lifting hook, I already ordered the two shorter bolts, they will be here tomorrow and I'll torque it all down. The 2F hook will work and I'll just remove it when I attach the accessories. Not a big deal. Thanks though.


Today, I was stalled on the engine, waiting for a few things, the head bolts, a few bolts, a tap. Brown truck needs to hurry up... but I had a few other things to do...

I've owned my cruiser for 17 years, this month! And... the entire time, this has annoyed the hell out of me....

Some jackhole removed the kick out vents, torched them out, and welded a plate behind it. Then, bondoed over the whole thing. Just brutal. A couple years ago I got a free rusty messed up tub, to steal the kick out vents off of. Finally got to fix the stupid that has bother me for 17 freakin' years.

 

[hairy_apple]

It will need a little bit of filler around the welds, but not much. No holes. I wll roll the whole thing outside and remove all the paint from the area, and putty, primer, and paint it and it will be like nothing terrible was ever done there.

 

[hairy_apple]

I have been a busy boy this week. Got the cylinder head attached, got the rocker stuff and pushrods in. We were going to go camping this weekend, but it's going to be bad weather all weekend and I don't feel like getting stranded on the other side of the Sierras if we go, so I think I'll stay home and work on the cruiser more. Plan right now is get the rear main seal and oilpan gasket done tomorrow. Hoping to get the manifolds on, bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, ect on Sunday. Then get the transmission and transfer case attached. I am really, really hoping to have it all ready to be installed by the end of this weekend. I have a lot to do, but it would be really cool to have it back in the cruiser next week. THen I can start the fuel lines and the wiring.... eek.

 

[hairy_apple]

Almost ready to go in. Oil pan gasket tomorrow, and then it's time to hang it, or build a cradle or something so I can access the rear of the motor, and attache the bellhousing and flywheel and clutch. So close...

 

[hairy_apple]

I took a lot more stuff apart today, started gutting the dash, and getting the dash ready for the wiring harness work that will need to be done. I have had a lot of damage to it, and a lot of bad splices, a fire that damaged it badly, and my repairs at the time were subpar. I will be redoing a lot of it, but ultimately decided it still looks easier to repair what's there, rather then rewire it with a Painless or something like that.

Took the top off too so I could get to stuff easier. Tomorrow, I will be attaching the bellhousing and flywheel, clutch, etc. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have everything ready to go in! I also need to do a little more work on my cruiser to get it ready. Almost all of the transmission tunnel bolts broke or stripped. I am just going to cut them ALL off, cut the captive nuts off, and weld new nuts under the cruiser and just redo all of them. Also have to fix a section of the floor where it got cut. Nothing major, but now is the time to do it.

 

[xumFJ40]

I took a lot more stuff apart today, started gutting the dash, and getting the dash ready for the wiring harness work that will need to be done. I have had a lot of damage to it, and a lot of bad splices, a fire that damaged it badly, and my repairs at the time were subpar. I will be redoing a lot of it, but ultimately decided it still looks easier to repair what's there, rather then rewire it with a Painless or something like that.

Took the top off too so I could get to stuff easier. Tomorrow, I will be attaching the bellhousing and flywheel, clutch, etc. Hopefully by the end of this weekend I will have everything ready to go in! I also need to do a little more work on my cruiser to get it ready. Almost all of the transmission tunnel bolts broke or stripped. I am just going to cut them ALL off, cut the captive nuts off, and weld new nuts under the cruiser and just redo all of them. Also have to fix a section of the floor where it got cut. Nothing major, but now is the time to do it.

View attachment 1911588

As for re-wiring... I did this years ago... my suggestion is to get a full sheet of 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. Use a sharpie to draw/label physical contact points (i.e. lights, horn, etc) on the plywood. Obviously lable (with masking tape) your wire ends. Once you have it all pulled out of the truck, tack the harness up to the plywood. From there you will have points of reference and can take your time splicing in new wire...

It sounds worse than it is...

Good luck!

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

There might be a few nuggets of assistance on the wiring harness in my thread. I cut out a ton, fired it up, then took my time shortening and rerouting things to my liking.

 

[Coolerman]

Just read through your thread. Awesome work so far. If you need any wire, terminals, connectors, harness tape or whatever, shoot me a PM. I also have detailed wiring info on most year FJ40's if you need to know something weird.

 

[hairy_apple]

A few random pictures from this weekends fun....
My wife turning the engine over so I can torque the clutch down.
I used the bread trick to get the bearing out. Made my day, I'd never done it before, had read about it, knew about it for a long time. I didn't have a puller, and thought.. why not... and it worked great. At 2 slices of bread per clutch I do in my lifetime, I don't ever see the bread adding up to more then the puller costs. And.. got ready to mate the transmission to the motor... and.. something is missing... damn it. Took a drive to Valley Hybrids yesterday and Georg hooked me up with the missing throwout bearing collar thing and the clips. Not sure if I never had it, or like so many things, it got misplaced since it was all taken apart years ago. Either way, tonight we should have it all mated up and ready to go in.


I need to fix the floorboards and the transmission tunnel bolts. Almost all of the stripped or broke, so I'm just going to go buy some nuts and bolts and washers, weld the washers to the nuts, and weld that to the floor of the cruiser under and make new captive nuts for all of it. It's going to be a pain in the butt, but it's needed. I also have a damaged spot on the floor... it got cut and mangled for some reason... one of those stupid things I did when I was 17 and have no idea now why I cut the floorboard there... maybe something to do with the twin stick. I don't know, but I will repair it before I put the engine in while I can still climb under it easy.

Then crossmember for the rear, and start fuel lines and drivelines. I have a bad feeling I will need to turn my rear axle up and point it at the transfer case, we didn't do that when we did the SOA years and years ago, but I think with the even shorter drivelines, it's going to need it. I'll do a CV too for sure.

Getting closer.

 

[hairy_apple]

The engine is in! Woooohoo. Went in pretty easy, a friend came over this morning and we had it in pretty quick and easy. Now I need to get a rear crossmember fabricated, and get started on getting everything hooked up. At this point, I've forgotten just about where everything goes, so I think I might trade cars with my brother for a few days, and park his FJ62 in the shop next to my 40 and can have them side by side to compare where to plug in all the hoses and lines and how the engine harness is routed.

 

[hairy_apple]

After getting the motor in today, I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed, and distracted.. jumping from thing to thing kind of freaking out in my head a little about how much needed to be done. So I figured I needed to just tackle something simple and easy and move on... haha jokes on me. I needed to use the cable, and therefor throttle pedal from the FJ80. It actually looked light it might just bolt on... but of course, it was just slightly wider bolt pattern. WTF Toyota, why... why. So I took the FJ40 bracket and spring, and attached the FJ80 pedal... only, it didn't line up because it was on the other side of the little pivot shaft as the FJ40 was. Damn it. So now I've cut the shaft off, and will reweld it to the other side, and THEN it should bolt onto the firewall. I will need to shorten the whole thing about an inch or two, and bent it outward a little more. Then I can start the top part where the cable goes through the firewall. Yikes. One step at a time.

 

[Bripars40]

At this stage I would recommend resealing your oil cooler. Never any easier time than when the engine is either out or the side panels are off. From the looks of it it’s had some amount of leakage.

 

[hairy_apple]

Lots going on, got the plumbing mostly routed. Had to make and ugly reducer. I'm not very happy with it, but I guess it works. I think I'll pull it off and paint it black so you don't see it so much.

I got the pedal to work well. I am happy with that. Had to cut and bend and move it to the other side, and mount the FJ40 brackets on it. I got it attached and hooked to the manifold and it works great. Happy that's checked off the list.

I am starting the fuel today, and holy crap I'm struggling. I have never done anything EFI and just have no idea how to do it cleanly and safe. The rear hardline, I kinked trying to get it to fit the FJ40 firewall... ahhhhh. It's frustrating me. I want to run hard lines, high pressure and rubber lines scare me. I think I am going to take a trip to Sacramento this week, and see if I can't find some banjo fittings that I can use in place of the factory ones, and fabricate the whole thing from scratch. Yay... more work! lol

The next crappy part, is my PS pump wasn't able to swing out the way I have envisioned when the engine was on the stand.. it hits the shock tower, and then the fill cap is totally blocked by the York compressor bracket. Doh. I ended up ordering a Saganaw pump, that took a remote reservoir and will use that. I also ordered an 80's Toyota pickup reservoir that goes on the fender of the trucks, and will put it on the fender of my cruiser. A big part of this project is trying to make my cruiser what I think Toyota would have built into the early 90s if they kept building FJ40s.

 

[hairy_apple]

I checked at Napa, but did't try Summit.. that's a good idea. I really hate that reducer, and it cost me $8 for the two fittings! lol I would love something a little cleaner looking.

 

[hairy_apple]

Wow, I haven't updated this in a while. Been sorting through a lot of dumb little things. I still have to build a crossmember, I am hoping to get the driveshafts built next week. Finish fuel lines... that's been a bit of a challenge. I think I'm going to end up just doing EFI rubber lines. I wanted to do steel, but with the length of the pump and filter, there won't really be much point to doing steel lines for a foot or so of frame. I figured out today I have to get a different slave cylinder for the clutch.


I did figure out the PS pump, ordered a remote Saganaw pump, it's the same pump as the ham can type, just without the ham can. I bought an 80's mini truck remote reservoir to put on the fender to feed it. It should actually look pretty much like it belongs. I am happy.

But... the biggest thing is... the wiring harness. I had Get Wired Automotive Solutions in Colorado do it, as I was dreading it. He did a fantastic job. I couldn't be happier. I have very few connections I need to make to my cruiser's harness, and it's all super clean and will be a day or two to install now. Very very happy with how it all came out.

I am getting close. A few more solid days of work and I think I will be there. Hopefully this weekend I can build the crossmember and get the front accessories done and belts on them. That's the hope anyway. At that point I can tow it to the exhaust shop to have a new Y pipe made. I am reusing the v8 exhaust from the Y pipe back. It's only a few years old and nothing wrong with it. So might as well. Hopefully the 2FE sounds good with a flowmaster. lol


This is the wires that were trimmed out of the harness! Wow...

And, the finished cowl harness. A lot less scary then what I sent to Colorado a few weeks ago. Everything nicely labeled and it should make this a lot more manageable.